Through HR’s Eyes: A Day in the Life

Navigating the hiring process is a tricky thing.  You have likely spent what feels like an eternity perfecting your resume and cover letter and tirelessly spent hours applying online.  You’re eager, and hopefully excited, but feel like you've been waiting a lifetime to hear something…..anything!  You may feel HR makes the process more difficult rather than better for you and wonder what they could be doing all day and why you haven’t heard anything.  Understanding what a typical day is like for an HR professional may help shed some light into the job seeking process for you.  Here’s a pretty typical day in the life of an HR professional:

8:00 – 9:00; Begin and plan the day

In today’s world, emails saturate our in-boxes (and also our time).  Typically, a significant portion of the morning is spent going through the emails that have built up and responding to internal clients.  Some matters an HR professional must respond to require deeper research or in depth decision making.  These items may require us to consult another party or take additional time to mull over issues that are less than cookie-cutter.  Most HR professionals have a variety of responsibilities and tasks they must complete.  This also requires significant planning to ensure proper time management which needs to be done early in the day.

9:00 – 10:00; Meetings

Like other business professionals, there are various stakeholders that require our regular attention and meetings are a common fact of life in most businesses.  Many of the meetings may also require substantial preparation on our part.  “People” matters are rarely black and white, and we dedicate time and resources to every decision and recommendation we make.

10:00 – 11:30; Paperwork

HR is at the core of much of the administrative work in an organization.  We spend a substantial portion of each day dedicated to our administrative and transactional responsibilities (FMLA, unemployment, worker’s compensation, employee and benefits paperwork, etc).  We’re always trying to become more efficient in this area to reduce this portion of our jobs, but it remains a necessary evil.

11:30 – 12:00; Emails

We’re back to the emails in an attempt to make the evening load easier to manage.

12:00 – 12:30; Lunch

You’ll find many HR professionals eating lunch alone at their desk.  This is for a variety of reasons.  It’s difficult for HR to regularly eat with employees in other departments.  We’re often privy to information that can inadvertently put us in uncomfortable situations with other employees.  Additionally, it is HR’s job to remain an unbiased and consistent presence in the organization. 

12:30 – 3:00; Recruiting 

We will spend a significant portion of our day dedicated to finding talent.  Despite how plentiful you think the candidate pool is for a position, I guarantee that finding qualified people for that job is not easy.  Whether the qualifications high or low, it’s always difficult to find great people.  Please keep in mind that during this time, we write job descriptions, post jobs, review resumes, conduct interviews, administer testing, run background checks, and send offer & rejection letters.  That’s a heck of a lot to do in a relatively short amount of time.

3:00 – 3:30; Vendor communication

In HR, people are regularly trying to sell you things (consultancy, benefits, technology, staffing services, etc).  Many of these conversations include HR politely declining, as most products and services are a dream and a tease on our tight budgets.  Managing vendor relationships is an important part of our jobs.

3:30 – 4:30; Manager/Employee Advising

Our advice is regularly sought from employees about personal matters as related to their job.  In the past I’ve had a “therapy chair” available in HR for these types of conversations.  Additionally, managers regularly seek our guidance relating to employment matters.  We must be available to speak with both about their respective matters.  After all, in HR, your most regular clients are internal.  

4:30 – 5:30; Wrap Up

Like other professionals, our day often requires us to wind down and wrap up.  There are often outstanding items that we must address before the end of the day.  People matters can rarely “wait until tomorrow”, and this is often the time we’re working very hard behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly for all employees.

Understanding what an HR professional’s day is like may help you gain some insight as you deal with HR through the hiring process.  I encourage you to remain positive and persistent and to aim high!